Pipe organ gives classics a sacred sound

Classical music can be played on almost any instrument but there is one instrument that gives a performance of classical music a more sacred feel, the pipe organ. In the hands of organ player Paul Timmins, the organ at the Ayia Kyriaki church (The Anglican Church of Paphos) in Paphos, works by Bach, Couperin, Handel, Mendelssohn and Vierne will flourish with tonal colours and a lingering sensation that may make audience members feel like they are hearing these pieces for the first time.

Timmins, who will perform a 30-minute organ recital on Monday at 12pm, studied organ under Michael Burton, teacher, recitalist and once assistant organist at Hereford Cathedral in England. After continuing his advanced studies in music, he was appointed organist of the Birmingham Progressive Synagogue (a position he held for over ten years) and assistant organist of the Birmingham Oratory.

After moving to London, Timmins held a number of organ posts, including one at the St Chad’s Haggerston Anglo-Catholic church in the East End of London, where he formed a choir. He met his wife in Paphos in 2012, where he currently resides, and is the organist for the Ayia Kyriaki church.

The pipe organ on which Timmins will perform is the Ahlborn 111 Classical Organ.

The audience will experience the works in the recital in new ways as they will come to life on the organ – an instrument firmly established with a centuries-old history and a rich abundance of religious, cultural and artistic importance. The mechanics and sounds of traditional organs are undergoing a transformation at the moment. As traditional instruments are used to play more modern tunes, and as more modern instruments also take their place in classical music, it is only logical that an instrument like the pipe organ – which derived from Ancient Greece in the third century BC – should get a make-over. The organ at the Ayia Kyriaki church is one that especially lends itself to modern ways of making music. By the use of a special digital sampling technique, not only is high-quality voicing guaranteed but the original pipe sounds are also made possible.

The church in which the pipe organ is located was built around 1500AD as a Latin church on the site of a small church destroyed in 59AD by an earthquake. About 100 years after its construction and following the Turkish invasion of 1570, it became the Byzantine Cathedral of Kato Paphos. There is no entrance fee for this recital, but donations are welcome for the St Michael’s Hospice Charity.

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